Ben Settle

Recently I was reading an interview with an eccentric screen writer who grew up in the Great Depression named Philip Yordan in the book “Back Story 2.”

Fascinating guy to say the least.

And he said something that anyone — newbie or seasoned pro — in the marketing game could potentially use to exploit the buckling economy when it all goes kablooey and the reality of Great Depression 2.0 finally settles in.

Here’s what he said:

“Life was very hard, very difficult, especially in the Depression. It didn’t affect us because my dad got into the beauty supply business and that was excellent throughout the Depression, because any girl that could raise seventy-five cents would go get her hair set.”

Anyway, something to think about when SHTF:

• Find a painful, urgent problem in beauty-related niche to solve
• License or create offer that solves it
• Build & grow email list
• Email list daily selling that offer
• Sell those buyers something else

Email ain’t going anywhere.

And I predict it’ll be even more important than ever in the coming days, weeks, months, and, yes, years … as the economy melts down, as customers denied cheap credit become more discerning than ever… and as people realize the shoddy foundation selling just on social media really is.

If you have no list start building it now.

If you do have a list, grow it more aggressively than you do now.

If you want to learn how to write emails that sell to that list, check out:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A couple true stories for the swipers & reverse engineers:

Story #1:

Last year Email Players subscriber Ken McCarthy — long time friend of the great Dan Kennedy — asked some of us about FAX options. Reason why is, Dan forces even his friends to communicate with him via FAX.

Email Players subscriber Troy Broussard reported the same.

Literally bought a FAX machine to communicate with the Professor of Harsh Reality.

I also hear-tell Dan Kennedy has no email, no smart phone, not sure he even uses the internet.

An assistant buys his books on Amazon.

Guy charges upwards of $19k just to fly (at your expense) to his house in bung-hole-of-the-universe Ohio just to consult with him for a day and sell you on the honor and privilege of paying him six figures in fees to write your copy.

So that’s story #1.

Here’s story #2:

Many years ago, the late Gary Halbert used to hold seminars.

And during his seminars — $7k a pop to attend, much more than that in today’s dollars — he wore a cap with big, bold letters that said:

“CLIENTS SUCK!”

Of course, that just emboldened clients.

Sneaking up and on breaks to sell him on taking their money.

Bonus Story #3:

The late, great David Ogilvy used to wear a cape at meetings.

Literally showed up to high pressure negotiations looking like Dracula. And he did this when he was new, nobody had any clue who he was. Just this goofy-looking guy showing up in a cape, selling businesses on hiring his agency to do their advertising.

Point of all these stories?

Some people just have attributes rest of us mortals don’t.

And if you don’t possess their attributes then copying them is a recipe for disaster.

I will say this, though:

Email can be the great equalizer if used correctly.

Build list, mail it daily, bond with, demonstrate your wiles consistently, show you are not just same old-same old, and over time you’ll probably also develop your own kind of eccentricity some will be attracted to, while others are repulsed by, but that you get away with doing, even if others can’t.

With the attracted you’ll get away with a lot more.

And to such an extent you may find it hard to believe when it happens.

As far as the how-tos of email?

See:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Last month I was tweeting about zoomers, mobile apps, & email.

And I got this reply:

APPs will be what Blogs were in the past.
 
I suspect that in the future, websites will only serve to have some information about their owner, a sample of work done (or content revealing their experience, which is the same or even better if you know how to do it) and a link to download. your official APP where you can find all the news, products and more.
 
And what about email marketing?
 
I love email marketing, I’ve been doing it for almost 20 years when I was building my affiliate sites using forums.
 
But I doubt it has much of a future.
 
Because?
 
Because the vast majority of young people today hardly read.
 
Anyway, its fascinating.

My thoughts:

1. He’s 100% absolutely right spot on about apps. Totally agree.

2. But as for email has no future because young people don’t use it?

Realize this:

20%+ of “young people” don’t even know what gender they are.

Functional idiots.

I have zero doubt Gary Halbert’s “Players with Money” — the only kind of customers & clients I recommend focusing on if you have any skill at all — will be using & buying from emails for a long time to come, regardless of age.

Including the zoomers & young people.

Not everyone has replaced TV with TikTok.

Some parents even still care about what goes in their kids’ heads.

So my opinion:

Email ain’t going anywhere.

If it for some reason it ever does?

Then the same principles of persuasive communication that work for email can simply be transferred to other medias – online or offline.

Especially the info in Email Players.

More info here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Couple weeks ago Stefania tweeted:

“Told my trainer this morning: it’s a point of personal pride that @elBenb0 has never changed a single one of Willis’ diapers nor made a single meal for us – he’s maybe used the microwave once or twice, but that’s it. She looked me like I was out of my mind”

True story about that:

A day or two after Willis was born, Stefania’s parents stayed with us for a few weeks. And one of the first things her dad Julio asked me while on my way out the door, laptop bag slung over shoulder, ready to get some work done on way to my detached office was:

JULIO: Ben, you going to change diapers?

elBENBO: I can change the diapers or I can make the money.

He nodded in agreement.

He never changed any diapers either.

I don’t even think Stefania’s mom Margoth would let him.

And in my case, it’s simply not a wise use of my time.

Especially now, with the economy collapsing, where time is literally of the essence.

Now let me be crystal clear for the wine aunts gasping in despair at this:

If a dad wants to change diapers, I have nothing against it.

This certainly ain’t me shaming anybody.

Some guys have literally no choice, others even like doing it from what I’ve noticed.

But when one learns how to valuate their time — down to the minute — and parse that with the realities of energy output, breaks needed, mental bandwidth expended on menial activities that are not getting you to your goals, not to mention other ticky-tack business-related tasks that can’t be ignored… those multiple blocks of constantly interrupted work flow combined with the time spent wiping up shyt & piss several times per day for next couple years add up to quite a bit.

Same with other domestic chores that gobble up time.

This is one reason why Dan Kennedy’s NO BS Time Management book is so vital.

He forces you to figure out what your time is worth.

Mine is high enough where it’s one of the many reasons why I despise small talk, and possibly also why my output in a month is probably more than most peoples’ output in a year as far as content creation, emails, sales pages written, novels published, etc.

Time really does = money.

Thus the long game dictates my approach.

And not virtue signaling talking points on Twitter or Facebook to appease the wine aunts.

All right, enough of this.

Instead of changing diapers I put that time into high payout activities.

One of which is obviously email.

To learn how I go about it, check out:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Recently I was reading an interview with an old school crotchety screenwriter (is there any other kind?) from the book Backstory 2 by the name of:

Phillip Yordan.

Very interesting guy.

Street-wise, and battle-hardened.

And one theme that goes through not just his career dealing with high level Hollywood producers and studio owners, but a lot of those old school writers is, just how little the “script” mattered to their bosses at the end of the day.

Yes, they needed a script.

But for some it was like an afterthought.

As an example from the book:

“I worked for Walter Wanger once. . . he was a Dartmouth graduate and they wanted to bring somebody out here with some class. So they brought Walter. Walter says to me, ‘I don’t want to read this script. Scripts are shit. They’re nothing. It’s the subject matter, the story, the title, the cast, the costumes, and the set, that’s the picture.’ Like Cleopatra [1963]—names, costumes, set. Wanger wasn’t interested in the rest of it. Didn’t believe in scripts.”

Movie was ultimately considered a disaster.

Most people remember the drama behind the scenes more than the movie.

And it was all based on everything but a good script. These producers thought far more of the actors than the stories. More of the sets than the script. And more of the costumes than coherence or continuity. And while sometimes that worked (on accident), mostly it resulted in dumpster fires.

We got a bit of that in the marketing world too.

Example:

I have lost count of how many of my customers, Email Players subscribers, friends, and colleagues up in this industry have worked for clients — big and small — far more interested in the “name” than the talent or skill those names possess.

People chase names & status.

They want this guy’s style of email.

Or that guy’s style of doing sales copy.

Or some other guy’s style of doing launches, funnels, whatever it is.

The copywriting craftsmanship itself is almost an afterthought.

Real life instance:

I once coached someone on their copy.

And I will never forget one of the client saying:

“I want my sales letter to read like Ben’s Email Players sales letter.”

Zero awareness or caring about context whatsoever.

That sales page is not written to a mass market.

It’s certainly not written to people who do not know who I am.

It’s written “to” people who have been pre-exposed — via days, weeks, months, even years or possibly over a decade — of emails from me prepping them for the page. Someone lands cold on Email Players would be dumb to buy from it. It’s not meant for them. It’s not talking “to” them. I don’t even want such a customer as they aren’t sufficiently prepped unless they’ve been on my list first. And so to have a sales page written in that structure and flow of information in that particular case would make no sense for 99% of people who think it worthy of being modeled.

This is just how people are.

They are followers seeking & adhering to dogma.

Good dogma, bad dogma, relevant dogma, irrelevant dogma… doesn’t matter.

But I like Dan Kennedy’s long-time attutitude about marketing dogma:

“All dogma is bad”

Yes, including my “dogma” if I have any – perceived or otherwise.

But I do not teach dogma.

I never say there’s an “only way” to do anything.

There’s only the way that works.

This includes anything I teach, sell, advocate.

More here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Let us hearken back to a simpler time.

i.e., 10+ years ago.

Back in those days I was on both Facebook and Twitter. And one thing you could see people doing all the time — and maybe they still do — is tagging multiple people in a post or tweet when they want someone’s attention and a fat scooby snack for their trouble.

The so-called “Follow Friday” shtick comes to mind.

Especially amusing.

And was virtually worthless.

This was when people would shoot out 4-5 (or more!) tweets worth of people they wanted to tag at once, juts their handle and nothing else. It’s what amateurs would do. And had zero impact other than to get a like or wink from one of the people being tagged.

The reason:

Nobody is given any reason to follow any one of them.

i.e., Reason Why selling.

Same when I used to see people tagging 8 or 9 or 10 people on Facebook and all the ways they helped them, almost always as a desperate virtue signal. Not quite as worthless as Follow Friday was due to the nature of Twitter v Facebook.

And certainly better than nothing.

But you know what’s ideal no matter the platform?

(Facebook, Twitter, even email)

Tagging/plugging just one person.

And then giving that one person the spotlight.

One, it’ll be far more likely to be read and acted on.

And B, you’ll be doing a true service for the person you are tagging vs diluting it amongst multiple people. Not saying never to tag multiple people or whatever. Sometimes that is better. And in emails I’ve done that sort of thing, but not as a virtue signal, as a genuine attempt to help serve my readers.

But if you really want someone’s attention?

And if you genuinely be of help to them, and endear yourself to them?

Maybe even get that precious scooby snack from them?

Don’t bury them in a post with multiple others.

Apply the oldest “law” of direct response probably ever devised:

“Sell one thing at a time”

Put the spotlight on just one.

Maybe your milage will vary. But doing that one thing helped me get more JV’s, make more connections, and, overall get me more business using all kinds of marketing media than almost any other social media tip I can share.

Applies to email, too.

Yes, you can write a list of people or books you’ve learned from. And at times I have. But the impact was nowhere near as powerful as isolating one person, one book, one resource, etc, I want my list to check out.

These laws of direct response are constant.

Social media is not “different.”

Mobile apps are not “different.”

And whatever new tech comes next will not be “different.”

Not when it comes to direct response.

The laws work across the board.

Which is why I bake so many of these laws into everything I sell, why I teach them constantly, and, yes, why I use them all the time in my own business, almost to an obsessive degree. Solid principles grounded in proven psychology and sound, principled thought will rarely leave you or forsake you — unlike tactics which are often fleeting, temporary, and very often treacherous that’ll turn on you.

All of which brings me to the Email Players Newsletter.

A lot of the info inside each month is almost all law-based.

Applied to email.

And accessible by just about any business using email.

That’s why they work so reliably, and are far more valuable than the latest goo-roo tactic being preached in some Facebook group or being sung about by someone prancing around the room at a mastermind.

Not saying all tactics are bad.

But they are often situationally effective.

And, while they may get you a meeting, they rarely get you invited back.

(H/T to the late Jim Camp who I first heard that truism from)

More info here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

An Email Players subscriber (not sure she wants me revealing her name) checks in:

Something that jumps out at me:
 
When you were in burnout, you wanted the 10-minute workday. When you came out of burnout, you wanted to work more.
 
I’m deep in burnout right now and feeling overwhelmed. But I’ve been sending my daily emails for almost a year now, and it feels like I’m cracking my way into a new level. The revenue still isn’t there but I’m trying new things.
 
This email gives me hope that I won’t always feel this way, that things will get easier at some point, something will click, and and I will be ready to contribute MORE instead of wanting to get by on LESS. I hate wanting to be smaller.
 
No question, just a THANKS for the (unintentional?) encouragement to keep going.

That is exactly how it works.

And this is what 99% never understand or experience because they quit too early.

In my experience:

Whatever someone is going after, if they have a good plan to follow, it will happen eventually. That’s literally how the process works: There’s nothing, nothing, nothing happening… wheels spinning… you wonder what’s the point… until you’re on the verge of just saying to hell with it all… but you keep going even though any rational person would probably quit (it helps to have someone who is a naysayer to prove wrong…) and then seemingly out of nowhere:

BAM!

Something happens and everything changes.

What will happen?

Who knows?

I’ve never heard or seen it be the same for any two people. But the common theme is, an opportunity arises seemingly out of nowhere while, in reality, you’ve been readying yourself to see and exploit it. An old dead deal revives. An idea comes to you out of the blue that changes everything. You get on someone’s radar who mails their list about you somewhere and 2000+ people join your email list, many becoming buyers, and many of those buyers leading to new deals, JV’s, clients, whatever it is.

It’s impossible to say what for any specific business.

But all the above happened to me and more all at once it seemed.

In fact, there was a time many yeas ago I was on the verge of saying screw it all.

Nothing seemed to work sustainably.

All my hard work seemed to be for nothing.

And I was wasting my talents on skills, with nothing to show for it, constantly clawing away, working like a mule, and getting screwed over, or making stupid decisions, or just toiling away in frustration not knowing what to do next.

(This was before I took email and list building seriously, which too me far too long to start doing…)

But then a deal emerged I thought was long dead.

A client came out of the woodworks I never expected.

I got an idea to implement out of the blue.

And then I got on some radars of the right people — who had seen some of the stuff I’d been toiling away on but that I didn’t think anyone saw — who helped put a lot of people on my list, including people wanting to hire me.

Money came in that let me invest in programs that made my skills sharper.

Which led to more profits.

And more skill mastery.

Which then led to another series of opportunities, deals, clients, etc.

And all of those then had “threads” I tugged on, that led to more opportunity.

Until, today, it’s not a matter of where good deals or ideas are, but which to turn down.

And so on, and so forth.

I didn’t “engineer” any of it.

I simply created an environment for it to happen and grow in organically, and went with it.

Had I known then what I do now I’d have both created the environment & engineered it.

But the point is this:

Any one of a million “things” can happen.

And every single person I know in this business has had some “thing” like that happen at some point. A catalyst that sparked a fuse, that created a chain reaction of events and opportunities that changed their entire lives seemingly “overnight” after many years of hard grind and struggle.

Admittedly:

It’s hard to see it or believe it when you’re in the thick of darkness & despair and nothing is working. But if you were to ask people you know who are successful at what they do, I suspect they’d tell you the same thing. And it’s like that law of physics where for every action there is a reaction.

With no action, there can be no reaction.

So it goes to reason that you should not focus on the reaction, but the action.

As many actions as you can.

Eventually there’ll be a reaction.

There has to be – because, as the late Earl Nightingale astutely said:

That’s the law.

Ain’t nothing metaphysical or “woo-woo” about it either.

The thing is though, nothing to aim your actions at it’s almost as bad as having no action. A ship without a rudder will get to some destination, probably something destructive… (deserted island, shoals, storms, hit an iceberg or another ship…) so it’s foolish to try to approach it like The Secret or whatever.

Thus, having a plan.

Doing the work, with a plan, is what separates the sheep from the goats.

That plan may change and evolve, but it’s a start.

As far as how to use this info?

I can’t make your plan for you.

But my Email Players Newsletter might serve a a good beacon.

You’ll have to decide for yourself.

More info here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A question came in all the way from the Philippines asking for advice to an aspiring copywriter. The guy is in dire straights financially – mom needs medical care, he’s hustling his arse off, etc but he wants some guidance.

Here’s some advice in no particular order:

* Hit up your network – and let them know you’re looking for clients, most copywriting gigs, like most corporate jobs, are not advertised

* Be useful – don’t beg, ask, or try to make creative offers as it comes off as desperate… instead try to find out what people want (you have to learn how to research anyway) and be useful.

* Ask for referrals – whenever you get a client who is happy with your work immediately ask if they know anyone else who can use good copy, try to get them to do an intro for you, you can build an entire book of clients just doing this

* Don’t take no for answer – pull a Jim Camp and force flakey or wishy-washy people to tell you no i.e., “will you do me a favor and just tell me no, that way I can stop wasting your time and focus on the other clients I’m working with”

* First hour always belongs to you – not your clients or anyone else, always be selling your own offers, building your own list, etc, the goal is to not “need” any one client, you be your own client first and foremost

* Leverage – start going to your peers and think of ways to help each other, form masterminds, get yourself on podcasts, create your own local event for online marketers, just as a mixer (nothing for sale), that you host if you’re really hardcore and extroverted (admittedly I’m not, personally, and would not do this – I struggle with even summoning the ambition to do a small local intensive of 5 or so people…)

* Finally – apply (when relevant, at least) what I talk about in the Email Players Newsletter each month.

Although, a caveat:

The newsletter is not intended for newbies.

Only those with for real businesses (freelance, info publishing, ecommerce, brick & mortar, services, anything that can be sold via email).

If you want in, hit the jump below:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Last year, I wrote this in an email:

“1. If it jiggles it’s fat (not just talking about Schwarzenegger’s take on weight loss…)”

To which the inevitable question came:

I printed this email and put it on the wall so I can read it again and again. Only point 1 is not clear. What do you mean with “If it jiggles it’s fat (not just talking about Schwarzenegger’s take on weight loss…)”?

Physiologically it means the human body doesn’t lie to you.

Muscle doesn’t generally jiggle…

From a business perspective it can mean a lot of things:

* Excess words that needlessly bloat a sales page is jiggle

* Time spent scrolling social media thinking you are “doing business” vs legitimately working in your business is jiggle

* Possessions you don’t use, don’t need, and that clog up space/mind/time is jiggle

* Employees (especially office politicians) who don’t earn their keep or create chaos is jiggle

* Offers/products/content that lose money and/or don’t lead to profit on the back end (i.e., TV shows that drain the network budget like the rash of woke CW superhero shows that just got the axe, etc) is jiggle

* Emails with no offer or don’t lead to a sale (i.e., so-called “good will” emails) is jiggle

* Time spent tracking metrics you do nothing practical with is jiggle

* Energy invested into virtue signaling on social media over taking action is jiggle (i.e., “I’m going to write a book!” vs actively writing the book)

* And so on, and so forth

If it jiggles it ain’t muscle, it’s fat, Spanky.

Word to the wise and all that.

To check out the Email Players Newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle